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i 

University  of  Illinois  Library  at 

Urbana-Champaign 


MASTER  NEGATIVE 
STORAGE  NUMBER 

95-4398 


AUTHOR:  Alvord,  Clarence 


- 


TITLE: 


DATE: 


Walworth 
Illinois,  the 
origins 


PLACE:     Pontiac,  III. 


1909 


UIUC  Master  Negative  95-4398 


University  of  Illinois  at  Urbana-Champaign 

University  Library 
Urbana,  Illinois  61801 


HUMANITIES  PRESERVATION  PROJECT 


CATALOG  RECORD  TARGET 


Alvord,  Clarence  Walworth,  1868-1928. 

Illinois,  the  origins  :  an  address  /  by  Clarence  Walworth  Alvord. 

[Pontiac,  111.]  :  Illinois  State  Reformatory  Print,  [1909?] 

21  p.  :  port.  ;  24  cm. 

Military  tract  papers  ;  no.  3 

"Before  the  trustees,  faculty,  and  students  of  the  Western  Illinois  State  Normal  School, 
Friday,  December  3,  1909." 

Illinois—History. 


MICROFILMED  BY 

Preservation  Resources 

Bethlehem,  PA 


on  behalf  of 
The  Humanities  Preservation  Project 

at  the  University  Library 
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i 


MILITARY  TRACT  PAPERS 


No.    3. 


ILLINOIS:  THE  ORIGINS 


AN    ADDRESS    BY 


CLARENCE  WALWORTH    ALVORD,  PH.   D., 

Associate  Professor  of  History, 
University  of  Illinois 


BEFORE    THE    TRUSTEES,    FACULTY, 
AND    STUDENTS 

OF  THE 
WESTERN   ILLINOIS  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


FRIDAY,  DECEMBER  3,    1909 


.L 


CLARENCE  WALWORTH  ALVORD,  Ph.   D. 


CLARENCE  WALWORTH  ALVORD,  Ph.   D. 


. 


ILLINOIS-THE    ORIGINS 

Within  recent  years  an  interesting  phenomenon  within 
the  schools  of  Illinois  as  well  as  in  the  state  at  large  is  forc- 
ing itself  on  our  attention.  I  refer  to  the  ever  increasing 
activity  in  the  celebration  of  important  events  in  the  history 
of  the  territory  that  has  come  to  be  known  as  the  State  of 
Illinois.  The  forces  back  of  these  recurring  celebrations, 
although  we  are  more  or  less  unconscious  of  them,  have 
sprung  from  a  feeling  of  state  unity  and  state  personality;  a 
feeling  that  has  grown  rather  late  in  the  West.  We  have 
not  been  surprised  in  the  past  when  such  states  as  Massa- 
chusetts, New  York,  and  Virginia,  held  celebrations  in  honor 
of  their  great  men  and  the  events  that  are  land  marks  in 
their  development,  because  in  these  eastern  states  there  was 
nurtured  during  the  colonial  period  a  particularism  which 
gave  to  each  of  them  an  almost  national  existence  at  the 
time  they  entered  the  Union;  but  within  these  states  of  the 
great  Mississippi  Valley,  there  was  no  long  period  of  terri- 
torial unity  preceding  the  condition  of  statehood  and  the  en- 
trance into  national  relations.  The  boundary  lines  that  run 
this  way  and  that  upon  the  map  of  the  West  are  generally 
artificial  in  character,  and  have  been  drawn  for  the  most 
part  by  men  that  were  not  directly  connected  in  any  way 
with  the  states  which  have  thus  been  marked  off.  Take  the 
case  of  Illinois  itself.  To  the  average  Illinoisans  there  has 
been  very  little  significance  that  a  line  separated  us  from  our 
sister  state  to  the  east,  for  the  peaceful  increase  of  the  two 
communities,  thus  divided  by  an  artificial  line,  has  run  so  sim- 
ilar a  course  that  no  event  in  the  past  of  either  has  given 
cause  for  a  very  material  differentiation.  The  immigrants 
who  have  settled  to  the  east  or  to  the  west  of  that  particular 
line  have  been  of  the  same  stock,  and  the  reasons  for  fixing 
any  particular  settlement  on  this  side  or  that  side  of  the  line 
have  been  accidental  in  character,  and  have  not  in  any  way 
emphasized  a  difference  between  the  people. 

The  development  of  a  state  personality,  this  feeling  of 
solidarity,  has  taken  place  in  Illinois,  not  during  her  terri- 
torial period,  but  during  her  period  of  statehood.  And  now 


p 31121 

. 

| 


6 

that  almost  a  century  has  run  its  course  since  the  time  when 
this  territory  was  declared  of  age,  this  consciousness  of  the 
distinct  personality  of  the  great  Prairie  State  has  stored  up 
sufficient  force  to  arouse  in  us  a  feeling  of  pride  in  our  past, 
as  something  in  which  other  states  have  not  participated. 
One  of  the  forms  by  which  this  consciousness  exhibits  itself 
is  in  the  celebration  of  anniversities,  such  as  has  drawn  us 
together  tonight. 

There  is  another  way  in  which  we  are  proclaiming  our 
pride  in  the  past  of  our  state  that  is  equally  significant, 
namely,  through  the  work  of  our  historians.  Perhaps  in  no 
state  in  the  Union  is  there  greater  activity  in  the  study  of 
local  history  than  is  found  in  Illinois.  Our  State  Historical 
Society  is  among  the  largest.  The  State  Historical  Library 
is  showing  an  activity  which  rivals  the  work  of  any  other 
institution  of  similar  kind  and  is,  I  hope,  wisely  expending 
the  appropriations  made  by  the  legislature.  There  is  a 
praiseworthy  activity  in  the  local  historical  societies;  and  the 
individuals  who  are  working  upon  Illinois  history  are  in- 
creasing in  numbers  every  year.  The  state  legislature,  aside 
from  its  appropriation  to  the  State  Historical  Library,  has 
displayed  its  interest  in  another  way,  by  passing  a  bill  re- 
quiring a  knowledge  of  state  history  from  all  candidates  for 
teachers  positions.  This  action  on  the  part  of  the  legisla- 
ture may  be  open  to  criticism;  but,  from  our  view-point  to- 
night, it  is  an  exhibition  of  state  pride,  of  the  consciousness 
of  a  past,  the  knowledge  of  which  is  regarded  as  a  valuable 
acquisition  for  the  citizens  of  this  community. 

This  development  of  an  appreciation  of  the  state's  past 
among  our  people  should  be  a  cause  of  congratulation,  for 
the  result  of  this  energy,  although  it  may  be  occasionally 
misdirected,  will  finally  exercise  great  influence  upon  our 
citizens,  when  our  true  history  is  better  known,  because  we 
have  a  past  that  has  been  of  great  value  to  humanity,  a  past 
which,  on  the  whole,  we  may  contemplate  with  pride. 

The  event  which  we  celebrate  here  this  evening  is  one 
that  marks  a  distinct  epoch  in  the  history  of  Illinois,  a  change 

1 


. 


in  life  that  is  of  such  a  character  that  we  may  say  that  the 
whole  previous  history  of  the  territory  had  but  little  effect 
thereafter;  for  the  entrance  of  Illinois  into  the  Union  was 
not  an  event  closely  connected  with  the  18th  century  events 
of  this  particular  region.  Up  until  1809,  we  may  regard  Illi- 
nois as  simply  a  portion  of  the  great  western  area,  the  des- 
tinies of  which  were  still  to  be  determined.  The  particular 
locality  known  as  Illinois  had  not  differentiated  itself  in  any 
material  way  from  other  parts  of  the  western  territory;  and 
in  writing  the  early  history  of  the  state,  one  is  obliged  to 
ignore  later  state  lines.  We  have  to  tell  the  history  of  the 
Northwest,  or  the  history  of  the  Central  West,  or  the  his- 
tory of  the  whole  Mississippi  Valley,  not  the  history  of  Illi- 
nois. Take  the  important  figures  in  the  history  of  the  region 
during  this  earlier  period,  and  you  will  find  that  in  every 
case  they  do  not  belong  particularly  to  Illinois,  but  to  the 
greater  area  of  which  this  district  was  but  a  part.  We  can 
advance  no  exclusive  claim  to  Joliet,  Marquette,  LaSalle, 
the  great  discoverers  of  the  Mississippi  basin,  any  more 
than  can  our  sister  states  of  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Ohio, 
Indiana.  The  events  that  led  to  the  first  settlement  of  Illi- 
nois by  Frenchmen  were  closely  connected  with  the  imperial 
policy  of  the  court  of  Louis  XIV,  aii  all  inclusive  policy 
which  would  colonize  the  whole  Mississippi  basin, and  re- 
garded the  planting  of  the  little  villages  of  Cahokia  and 
Kaskaskia  as  but  the  advance  posts  of  a  great  French  com- 
munity. That  these  were  within  Illinois  meant  nothing  to 
the  French;  and  the  founders  of  the  settlements,  the  priests 
first  and  the  later  soldiers,  belonged  not  to  Illinois  but  to  the 
whole  Mississippi  Valley,  where  they  and  their  contempor- 
aries planted  similar  missions,  villages,  and  forts.  This 
lack  of  real  territorial  history  is  also  true  of  the  period  of 
the  English  and  Virginia  control  of  the  country.  The  parti- 
cular English  merchants  and  officers  who  occupied  Kas- 
kaskia, Fort  de  Chartres,  Cahokia,  were  not  men  that  may 
be  claimed  by  Illinois  alone,  but  belonged  to  a  great  number 
of  other  states.  George  Rogers  Clark,  the  greatestlhero  of 


• 

• 


8 

them  all,  the  man,  who  was  one  of  the  instruments  of  Provi- 
dence in  saving  for  the  new  state  that  was  being  born  the 
Great  Northwest,  belongs  to  the  people  of  Kentucky  and 
Indiana,  as  well  as  to  us. 

So  coming  down  the  line,  we  do  not  find  any  point  in 
which  the  Illinois  territory  may  be  said  to  have  a  peculiar 
history  until  the  separation  of  this  territory  from  Indiana 
by  act  of  Congress  in  1809.  And  even  then,  from  1809  until 
the  state  was  admitted  to  the  Union  in  1818,  the  active  forces 
that  were  to  make  Illinois  the  state  she  has  become  were 
not  completely  developed;  for  it  was  not  until  the  actual 
entrance  of  the  state  into  the  Union  that  the  full  flood  of 
immigration,  which  was  to  raise  the  territory  from  insignif- 
icance to  prominence,  occurred.  Therefore,  although  1809 
might  rival  the  date  of  1818  as  the  barrier  between  the  past 
of  Illinois  and  her  future,  still  the  more  important  event  of 
the  entrance  of  the  territory  into  the  United  States  may 
more  justly  be  acknowledged  as  marking  that  wonderful 
change  of  which  we  today  are  conscious. 

It  is  my  purpose  this  evening  to  sketch  roughly  the 
population  of  Illinois  at  the  moment  that  she  passed  from  the 
territorial  state,  at  the  moment  that  she  shook  oil' her  connec- 
tion with  her  past,  at  the  moment  when  she  ceased  to  be  but 
a  part  of  a  greater  whole,  and  became  ILLINOIS.  At  that 
time,  there  were  but  few  elements  in  the  state  that  gave 
great  promise  of  the  future  development.  The  settlements 
that  went  to  make  up  the  Illinois  of  that  day  were  confined 
to  the  southeastern  part  of  the  present  territory  and  were 
distributed  in  somewhat  of  a  half  moon  shape  along  the  Illi- 
nois, Mississippi  and  Ohio  rivers,  stretching  from  Peoria  to 
Shawneetown  and  extending  inland  from  the  river  banks  but 
a  few  miles.  The  elements  of  this  population  are  of  such  a 
character  that  it  is  not  so  very  difficult  for  us  to  analyze  it 
in  order  to  gain  an  understanding  of  what  was  this  Illinois 
of  1818,  which  passed  from  her  territorial  estate  into  that  of 
full  statehood. 


9 

The  oldest  element  in  the  region  was  the  French.  It  is 
a  problem,  not  yet  solved,  to  discover  exactly  what  were  the 
influences  upon  the  later  development  of  Illinois  that  have 
come  from  the  French  population  scattered  along  the  Amer- 
ican Bottom;  but  tonight  I  shall  venture  to  advance  an 
hypothesis.  The  history  of  these  French  villages  was  al- 
ready over  a  century  old  in  1818.  Cahokia  had  been  estab- 
lished as  a  mission  station  of  the  Seminary  of  Quebec  as 
early  as  March  1699,  and  Kaskaskia  was  made  a  mission 
station  of  the  Jesuits  in  the  following  year.  From  that  time 
there  was  a  slow  infiltration  of  population,  largely  from 
Canada,  although  some  few  families  of  the  American  Bottom 
traced  their  origin  directly  to  France,  via  New  Orleans.  And 
yet,  the  population  was  never  large.  Perhaps  in  the  most 
prosperous  days  of  the  French  regime  the  French  population 
in  the  American  Bottom  did  not  number  over  two  thousand. 
But  that  period  was  before  the  King  of  France  had  ceded  in 
1763  all  claims  to  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Mississippi  to  the 
British  King.  From  the  time  of  the  arrival  of  the  English 
soldiers  in  the  country  of  the  Illinois,  in  October  1765,  there 
was  an  ever  increasing  emigration  from  the  eastern  to  the 
western  bank.  At  first  the  enterprise  of  Laclede  and  Chou- 
teau  in  founding  St.  Louis  attracted  many  of  the  French  to 
the  more  favorable  situation  on  the  western  bank;  but  after 
the  first  excitement  caused  by  the  announcement  that  the 
Illinois  country  was  no  longer  French,  the  population  of  the 
American  Bottom  remained  practically  stationary,  although 
there  are  indications  of  some  re-immigration  from  St.  Louis 
to  Kaskaskia  and  Cahokia,  after  the  French  learned  that 
France  had  also  ceded  the  western  bank  to  Spain.  This  sit- 
uation was  unchanged  until  1778.  By  the  arrival  of  George 
Rogers  Clark  and  the  Virginians,  on  a  July  night  of  that 
year,  the  immigration  from  the  eastern  bank  to  the  western 
bank  became  much  more  rapid.  The  history  of  the  contact 
of  these  Frenchmen  of  Roman  Catholic  religion  and  Gallic 
culture  with  the  large  framed,  energetic,  uncultured  Ameri- 
can pioneers,  was  dramatic  in  character.  The  story  of  the 


10 

tyranny  they  suffered  as  the  French  tell  it  themselves  in  the 
Kaskaskia  and  Cahokia  Records  thrills  today  our  hearts  and 
arouses  our  sympathy.  Shortly  after  the  arrival  of  Clark, 
the  prominent  and  influential  Frenchmen  began  to  leave  the 
villages  and  established  themselves  on  the  Spanish  side.  It 
is  a  mistake  to  think  of  the  Illinois  French  of  the  mid-eigh- 
teenth century  as  unenterprising,  ignorant,  superstitious, 
terms  of  disparagement  that  are  used  in  describing  them  by 
writers  of  the  last  years  of  the  18th  or  the  beginning  of  the 
19th  century.  Those  who  remained  on  the  eastern  bank  did 
not  represent  the  best  elements  in  the  French  population. 
The  great  leaders  of  the  French,  leaders  in  their  economic 
and  political  development,  had  deserted  them  and  had  trans- 
ferred their  citizenship  to  Spain.  The  census  of  the  Missouri 
side  that  was  drawn  up  by  the  Spanish  Commandants  in  the 
early  nineties  reads  today  like  a  census  of  Southern  Illinois  of 
1778.  You  find  in  the  villages  of  Missouri  the  names  of  the 
men  who  had  sympathized  with  the  American  cause,  who 
had  sided  with  George  Rogers  Clark,  who  had  made  it  pos- 
sible for  him  to  hold  the  Northwest,  who  had  given  of  their 
property  for  his  support,  and  who  had  marched  with  him 
over  the  flooded  ground  of  Illinois  to  conquer  Vincennes. 
Here  in  the  Spanish  villages  you  find  Gabriel  Cerre,  Charles 
Gratiot,  the  families  of  the  Saucier,  of  the  Brazeaux,  of  the 
Beauvais,  of  the  Charlevilles,  men  who  were  the  leaders  of 
the  Illinois  country  when  the  Virginians  made  that  famous 
march  from  the  Ohio  River  and  occupied  the  villages  of  the 
American  Bottom. 

This  emigration  began  in  Kaskaskia  earlier  than  it  did 
in  the  northern  village  of  Cahokia,  because  in  the  former 
village  was  stationed  the  garrison  left  by  Clark  and  in  its 
neighborhood  settled  the  Americans  who  first  found  their  way 
into  the  Northwest  as  immigrants.  The  oppression  of  the 
Virginians,  therefore,  fell  upon  the  Kaskaskia  French  much 
more  severely  than  upon  their  northern  neighbors,  and  des- 
pair of  better  conditions  drove  them  sooner  to  the  Spanish 
bank.  Between  -1^78  and  1790  about  70%  of  the  population 


11 

of  Kaskaskia  fled  before  the  advancing  Americans,  and  there 
was  left  in  the  village  only  a  few  families  of  the  less  enter- 
prising class. 

The  village  of  Cahokia,  on  the  other  hand,  had  been  able 
to  maintain  order  during  these  trying  years,  and  its  French 
citizens  had  displayed  a  remarkable  capacity  for  local  self 
government.  Here  for  years  there  was  practically  local 
autonomy,  and  the  citizens  supported  an  efficient  administra- 
tion, which  suppressed  disorders  in  the  community  and  even 
compelled  the  few  American  pioneers  who  found  their  way 
into  the  neighborhood  to  obey  the  laws.  On  the  whole,  Ca- 
hokia led  a  peaceful  life  during  the  same  years  that  were  such 
trying  ones  for  her  southern  neighbor;  and  at  the  end  of  the 
period  her  population  showed  a  slight  increase.  After  the 
United  States  had  established  in  1790  her  government  over 
this  region,  the  number  of  English  speaking  pioneers  in- 
creased slightly.  These  men  of  our  backwoods  were  aggres- 
sive, self-reliant,  and  were  much  more  capable  of  taking  care 
of  themselves  than  the  French;  nor  were  they  willing  to  ac- 
cept the  authority  of  the  older  settlers,  whom  they  held  in 
considerable  contempt.  Without  question,  also,  the  re- 
ligious differences  played  a  part,  and  the  Scotch-Irish 
Protestant  refused  to  obey  a  Roman  Catholic  Frenchman. 
For  these  reasons  there  was  an  almost  immediate  change  in 
the  personnel  of  the  official  class  after  1790.  The  names  are 
generally  English,  German,  Irish,  while  the  number  of 
French  names  was  diminishing  to  the  vanishing  point. 

This  new  government  established  under  the  United  States 
was  inefficient  and  proved  itself  incapable  of  maintaining 
order  in  the  communities,  nor  was  it  able  to  ward  off  the  at- 
tacks of  the  Indians.  At  the  same  time,  Spain  was  making 
earnest  efforts  to  induce  immigration  into  her  Mississippi 
possessions,  and  in  particular  had  great  hopes  of  alluring 
the  French  from  their  allegiance.  Similar  in  religion,  and 
accustomed  to  the  same  kind  of  government,  there  was  rea- 
son to  believe  that  under  proper  encouragement  the  French 
would  cross  the  river  and  that  the  eastern  bank  might  be 


UNIVERSITY  OF 

ILLINOIS  LIBRARY 

AT  URBANA  CHAMPAIGN 


12 

completely  deserted.  The  diplomacy  used  by  the  Spanish 
was  eminently  successful.  The  priests  of  the  American 
Bottom,  such  as  Father  LeDru,  Father  St.  Pierre,  Father 
Gibault,  were  persuaded  to  leave  the  shrinking  population 
of  the  American  villages  and  to  identify  themselves  with  the 
growing  communities  on  the  Spanish  shore.  The  three 
priests  accepted  the  parishes  at  St.  Louis,  St.  Genevieve, 
and  New  Madrid.  Besides  thus  discouraging  the  French 
by  taking  away  their  spiritual  leader,  the  Spanish  encour- 
aged the  Indians  in  their  attacks  upon  the  American  villages, 
and  then  to  make  assurance  doubly  sure,  they  offered  large 
tracts  of  land  to  enterprising  Frenchmen  who  would  come  to 
them.  The  result  was  that  the  many  Frenchmen  who  still 
lingered  on  the  American  side,  particularly  the  men  who  had 
managed  to  maintain  good  order  at  Cahokia,  gradually  passed 
over  the  river,  so  that  by  the  end  of  the  century  the  number 
of  these  oldest  settlers  on  the  American  Bottom  was  very 
small;  and  their  influence  upon  the  politics,  upon  the  econ- 
omic conditions,  and  even  upon  the  social  life  had  become 
almost  a  negligable  quantity.  There  remained  of  the  French 
occupation  of  the  American  Bottom,  little  more  than  a  mem- 
ory. Here  and  there  a  few  families  still  lingered  in  their 
old  homes,  but  the  prominent  French  names  of  the  early 
19th  century,  such  as  Menard  and  Jarrot,  belonged  to  men 
who  are  not  descendants  of  the  old  French  families,  but  are 
new  comers,  who  had  adjusted  themselves  to  American  pio- 
neer conditions,  and  by  this  adjustment  had  won  the  esteem 
of  their  fellow  Americans.  Since  the  year  1800  there  is 
scarcely  a  public  name  of  any  prominence  in  Illinois  history 
that  belonged  to  the  old  French  families  of  the  American 
Bottom.  The  Illinois  of  the  19th  century  was  thus  cut  off 
from  that  influence  that  is  so  marked  in  St.  Louis  and  in 
some  of  the  smaller  towns  of  the  western  bank;  and  the 
French  Creoles  have  never  played  a  part  in  Illinois  affairs 
in  anything  like  the  way  that  they  have  done  in  the  villages 
across  the  river. 

Before  the  United  States  had  established  the  govern- 


13 

ment  in  Illinois  territory  in  1790,  a  few  American  families 
had  found  their  way  to  this  region.  These  had  come  in  the 
wake  of  George  Rogers  Clark's  army.  Possibly  a  few  of 
Clark's  soldiers  also  had  settled  in  the  locality,  although  the 
muster  lists  of  Clark's  troops  do  not  contain  very  many  of 
the  names  of  the  early  Illinois  pioneers.  In  1780  several 
frontiersmen  under  the  leadership  of  Henry  Smith,  evidently 
coming  from  Virginia,  reached  Kaskaskia,  and  were  per- 
mitted by  Col.  Montgomery,  one  of  the  officers  of  George 
Rogers  Clark,  to  settle  on  the  bluffs  at  a  place  then  known 
as  Belle  Fontaine.  They  built  a  small  stockade  fort,  and 
were  able  to  defend  themselves  here  for  a  decade,  until  the 
United  States  took  possession.  Another  small  community, 
a  few  years  later,  settled  at  Grand  Ruisseau,  a  few  miles 
south  of  Cahokia,  and  acknowledged  the  court  of  that  place 
as  the  government  of  their  little  community.  Up  and  down 
the  American  Bottom  there  were  scattered  also  a  few  farms 
and  stockades.  We  have  a  list  of  these  early  Americans  in 
the  region,  a  list  that  contains  the  signatures  of  131  settlers 
Some  of  these  may  have  been  small  boys,  probably  were, 
but  they  are  the  names  of  the  first  English  speaking  citizens 
of  the  Illinois  territory,  and  from  them  were  sprung  some  of 
our  later  well  known  families;  for  example,  the  Oglesbys  and 
Bonds. 

These  new  comers  could  obtain  lands  in  two  ways,  one 
illegally,  and  the  other  legally.  The  illegal  manner  was  to 
petition  the  court  of  Kaskaskia  or  of  Cahokia  for  grants. 
Neither  of  these  courts  had  the  least  authority  to  take  cog- 
nizance of  such  petitions,  but  the  exigencies  of  the  case 
seemed  to  demand  action;  and,  therefore,  both  did  grant  to 
many  Americans  farms  of  400  acres.  The  Cahokia  court, 
which  was  more  careful  in  its  legal  acts,  made  their  grants 
subject  to  the  condition  of  confirmation  by  the  proper  author- 
ities. The  Kaskaskia  court,  which  was  more  disorganized 
and  more  nearly  controlled  by  the  newcomers,  seems  to  have 
acted  without  much  thought  of  right  or  legality.  The  legal 
manner  of  obtaining  lands  was  to  buy  them  from  the  French; 


14 

and  this  was  not  very  difficult  since  so  many  of  the  French 
were  migrating  to  the  western  shore. 

As  you  may  see  from  the  figures  that  I  have  given,  the 
number  of  American  settlers,  131  in  all,  was  not  very  large 
in  1790.  It  formed,  however,  the  advance  guard  of  the  later 
immigration.  This  advance  guard  was  slow  in  being  strength- 
ened by  recruits.  American  immigrants  came  to  Illinois 
between  the  years  1790  and  1800  only  in  sufficient  numbers 
to  bring  the  population  slightly  above  the  figure  it  had 
reached  in  the  most  prosperous  times  of  the  French  regime, 
fifty  years  before.  After  a  century  of  occupation  the  terri- 
tory of  Illinois  could  count  within  its  borders  a  little  under 
2500  people. 

To  us  moderns  who  view  the  fertile  fields  of  grain  ex- 
tending in  every  direction  through  the  state  and  who  know 
the  mineral  wealth  below  the  surface  of  the  ground,  it  seems 
amazing  that  there  was  not  a  rush  of  settlers  to  the  region 
in  spite  of  the  difficulties  that  confronted  them.  These  dif- 
ficulties were,  however,  very  real,  and  we  must  pause  a 
moment  to  take  account  of  them,  for  otherwise  we  shall 
never  appreciate  the  various  causes  which  made  the  entrance 
of  Illinois  into  the  Union  such  a  significant  turning  point  in 
her  history. 

The  first  difficulty  that  deterred  immigrants  from  com- 
ing to  the  territory  was  the  prairies  that  have  proved  in  the 
end  her  richest  possession.  The  pioneer  looking  for  lands 
had  a  rule  of  thumb  for  selecting  lands.  It  was  this. 
Where  the  largest  and  tallest  trees  grow,  there  lies  the  most 
fertile  land.  Illinois  is  a  prairie  state.  The  greatest  part 
of  her  territory  was  treeless.  The  natural  inference  was 
that  the  land  that  could  not  produce  trees  must  be  worthless 
as  farm  land.  If  you  will  read  the  journal  of  George  Wash- 
ington's trip  to  the  West,  you  will  notice  how  enthusiastic 


he  grows  over  the  land  of  tall  timber.  ' 
the  rule  known  to  all  westerners.     In 


He  was  but  applying 
1786  James  Monroe, 


the  later  president,  wrote  of  the  Nort/hwest;  "A  great  part 
of  the  territory  is  miserably  poor,  especially  that  near  Lakes 


15 

Michigan  and  Erie,  and  that  upon  the  Mississippi  and  the 
Illinois  consists  of  extensive  plains  which  have  not  had  from 
appearances,  and  will  not  have,  a  single  bush  on  them  for 
ages.  The  districts,  therefore,  within  which  these  fall  will 
never  contain  a  sufficient  number  of  inhabitants  to  entitle 
them  to  membership  in  the  confederacy."  Historians  have 
frequently  asserted  that  Clark's  soldiers  gave  such  glowing 
accounts  of  Illinois  that  they  attracted  thither  many  settlers. 
The  number  of  Americans  drawn  to  Illinois  by  these  so- 
called  glowing  accounts  do  not  appear  in  the  records,  save 
for  the  few  that  have  been  noted.  There  may  have  been 
1500  Americans  all  told  when  the  19th  century  began.  Cer- 
tainly not  all  Clark's  companions  were  favorably  impressed 
with  the  territory,  or  we  should  have  found  a  larger  popula- 
tion. John  Todd,  appointed  in  1779  county  lieutenant  for 
this  region,  one  of  Clark's  best  friends,  said  he  preferred 
Kentucky  to  Illinois,  "either  for  the  ambitious  man,  the 
retired  farmer,  or  the  young  merchant."  He  found  the 
climate  particularly  unwholesome.  Another  quotation — and 
this  time  from  the  citizens  of  Illinois  themselves — will  show 
how  universal  was  the  unfavorable  opinion  of  the  land.  In 
a  memorial  written  by  the  people  of  Illinois  in  1805  occurs 
this  statement.  Because  of  the  extensive  prairies  between 
Illinois  and  Vincennes,  "a  communication  between  them  and 
the  settlements  east  of  the  river  (the  Wabash)  can  not  in  the 
common  course  of  things,  for  centuries  yet  to  come,  be  sup- 
ported with  the  least  benefit,  or  be  of  the  least  moment  to 
either  of  them." 

Besides  this  traditional  low  estimate  of  the  value  of 
prairie  lands  there  were  real  obstacles  to  their  occupation. 
The  only  means  of  easy  communication  with  the  other  states 
was  by  water,  so  that  if  a  farmer  or  merchant  expected  to 
send  his  products  to  a  distant  market  he  must  settle  near  a 
stream.  Hence  the  early  settlements  of  Illinois  were  placed 
like  fringes  along  the  river  banks.  Prom  such  a  location 
the  farmer  had  another  advantage,  for  the  banks  of  the 
streams  were  wooded,  and  it  was  with  wood  that  he  built  his 


16 

house  and  barns,  and  it  was  with  wood  fires  that  he  cooked 
his  meals  and  kept  warm  in  winter,  for  the  period  of  the 
general  use  of  coal  had  not  yet  arrived. 

The  above  reasons  were  sufficiently  weighty  to  deter 
settlement  on  these  supposed  wastes  and  it  was  not  until 
1814,  four  years  before  Illinois  was  admitted  to  the  Union, 
that  the  first  daring  pioneers  penetrated  into  the  prairies 
and  set  up  their  log  cabins  and  barns,  the  precursors  of  the 
farm  buildings  of  the  modern  era. 

Closely  connected  with  the  above  retarding  forces  was 
the  tradition  widely  spread  throughout  the  country  that 
Illinois  was  particularly  unhealthy.  The  evidence  for  this 
seemed  to  be  conclusive  for  the  French  had  always  suffered 
from  malaria  and  the  first  comers  among  the  American 
pioneers  suffered  from  the  same  complaint.  There  was  very 
good  reason  for  this  general  experience.  The  French  had 
chosen  the  bottom  lands  where  there  were  always  standing 
pools  of  stagnant  water,  the  breeding  places  of  malarial 
bearing  mosquitoes.  Even  on  the  undrained  prairies  simi- 
lar breeding  places  were  numerous,  so  that  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  the  first  experience  of  the  early  inhabitants 
was  the  "shakes"  for  which  recourse  was  had  to  quinine  and 
whiskey. 

The  reasons  thus  given  were  not,  however,  insurmount- 
able nor  would  they  have  had  prohibitive  force  sufficient  to 
account  for  the  slow  infiltration  of  immigrants.  Other 
causes  were  more  effective.  The  first  of  which  was  the  dif- 
ficulty in  obtaining  titles  to  lands.  The  American  Bottom 
had  practically  been  granted  away  during  the  French 
Regime.  What  was  ungranted  had  been  illegally  given  to 
immigrants  by  the  British  military  commandants  and  the 
Virginia  courts.  Most  of  these  land  grants  were  written  in 
the  French  language,  and  drawn  according  to  French  law, 
a  cause  of  difficulty  to  the  agents  of  the  United  States  sent 
to  settle  the  various  legal  questions  arising  from  them. 
The  illegality  of  the  numerous  land  grants  increased  the  dif- 
ficulty, particularly  as  Congress  had  passed  a  blanket  con- 


17 

firmation  of  all  grants  that  might  have  been  made  in  good 
faith.  To  this  there  was  added  an  act  by  the  Continental 
Congress  in  1788  and  another  in  1791  by  the  United  States 
Congress  granting  land  to  the  settlers  already  in  Illinois. 
In  this  way  the  utmost  confusion  resulted  and  no  one  was 
assured  of  a  good  title  to  any  property  he  might  purchase. 
This  difficulty  was  not  overcome  until  almost  the  date  of  the 
entrance  of  Illinois  into  the  Union. 

This  confusion  retarded  immigration  more  completely 
because  this  granted  land  was  the  only  purchasable  land  in 
Illinois.  Squatters  might  settle  here  and  there,  but  no  one 
was  able  to  secure  any  kind  of  a  title  except  to  the  land 
which  had  been  granted  before  1791.  Matters  seemed  to 
take  a  more  favorable  turn,  when  in  1804  a  land  office  was 
established  in  Kaskaskia;  but  unfortunately  no  land  was  to 
be  offered  for  sale  until  existing  private  claims  were  adjusted. 
Now  began  a  systematic  attempt  to  bring  order  out  of  chaos; 
but  the  subject  was  a  difficult  one  and  delay  after  delay  was 
granted,  so  that  it  was  not  until  1814  that  the  sales  of  public 
land  in  Illinois  began  and  immigration  was  really  encour- 
aged by  the  possibility  of  purchasing  indisputable  titles 
to  the  fertile  fields.  Notice  that  this  again  was  only  four 
years  before  the  admission  of  the  state  to  the  Union. 

From  this  time  on  every  encouragement  to  settlement 
was  given  by  the  national  government.  At  the  very  time 
that  the  public  lands  were  thrown  on  the  market  a  new  act 
of  importance  went  into  effect,  by  which  squatters  in  Illi- 
nois were  granted  the  right  of  preempting  a  quarter  section 
and  of  entering  the  land  upon  the  payment  of  one-fourth  of 
the  purchase  price.  This  meant  that  those  who  had  already 
improved  lands  in  the  expectation  of  purchase  as  soon  as  the 
land  office  began  operations  had  the  first  right. 

This  delayed  opening  of  the  land  in  Illinois  by  the 
United  States  was  no  intended  slight  to  the  territory,  for 
there  was  no  land  in  the  territory  which  the  national  govern- 
ment had  a  right  to  sell.  The  United  States  had  adopted 
the  policy  of  obtaining  by  cession  from  the  Indian  claimants 


x 


18 

all  lands  before  opening  it  to  entrance  by  settlers.  Before 
1803,  the  surface  of  Illinois  was  covered  by  the  Indian  claims, 
except  the  region  around  the  French  villages  and  five  small 
tracts  in  various  parts  of  the  territory,  which  had  been  ob- 
tained for  the  purpose  of  building  forts.  With  the  year  1803 
began  the  first  series  of  Indian  treaties  which  was  finally  to 
drive  the  Indians  from  the  border  of  the  state.  The  first 
treaty  was  naturally  enough  with  the  Illinois  confederations 
whose  claim  to  the  southern  part  was  extinguished  in  1803; 
and  in  1804  the  Sauks  and  Foxes  ceded  the  territory  west  of 
the  Illinois  and  Fox  rivers;  and  in  1805,  the  land  on  the 
Wabash  claimed  by  the  Piankashaws  was  also  purchased. 
This  practically  ended  the  first  series  of  Indian  treaties  and 
nothing  more  was  attempted  until  after  the  close  of  the  War 
of  1612,  when  by  another  series,  the  most  important  treaty 
of  which  was  with  the  powerful  Kickapoos  in  1819,  all  Illi- 
nois except  the  extreme  north  was  opened  for  settlement. 
It  was  therefore  not  until  the  time  when  Illinois  entered  the 
Union  that  conditions  were  really  favorable  to  immigration. 
The  influence  of  these  retarding  factors  in  Illinois  is 
conspicuous  in  the  census  reports  as  far  as  we  have  them. 
We  have  already  seen  that  at  the  time  France  ceded  the 
West  and  Canada  to  England  in  1763,  there  were  about  2000 
white  settlers  in  the  Illinois  country.  At  the  time  of  the 
occupation  of  the  territory  by  George  Rogers  Clark  the 
population  was  probably  a  scant  1500.  By  1790  this  number 
had  fallen  to  below  1000  on  account  of  the  emigration  of  the 
French  to  Missouri.  Although  there  are  no  figures  the  de- 
crease in  the  French  population  during  the  next  decade  was 
very  marked,  but  there  was  compensation  for  this  in  the 
immigration  of  Americans  and  Canadian  French.  During 
this  time  the  Morrisons,  the  Reynolds,  the  Menards,  came 
to  Illinois.  In  1801  the  population  had  passed  the  maximun 
of  French  settlement  and  reached  almost  2500.  Compare 
this  with  the  population  of  other  western  states.  Kentucky 
in  1801  boasted  a  population  of  220,000  and  Ohio  45,000. 
Indiana  which  had  suffered  from  the  same  retardation  as  Illi- 


19 

nois  contained  also  about  2500  people.  The  next  census, 
that  of  1810,  shows  the  result  of  the  extinguishing  of  Indian 
titles  and  the  promised  land  sales,  for  Illinois  population 
numbered  over  12  000.  But  the  next  eight  years  saw  the 
actual  opening  of  the  land  office,  the  further  extinguishing 
of  the  Indian  land  titles,  and  the  beginning  of  settlements  on 
the  prairies.  The  forces  retarding  immigration  were  at  last 
removed.  Under  the  favoring  influence  of  these  conditions 
the  population  leaped  to  almost  40,000,  an  increase  of  about 
28,000  in  eight  years. 

One  naturally  asks  whence  came  this  influx  of  new  men? 
What  drove_them  to  the  frontier  border  to  make  new  homes? 
The  answer  is  not  so  very  difficult,  although  much  investiga- 
tion into  the  origins  of  our  early  population  remains  to  be 
done  by  our  historians  The  route  to  Illinois  generally  used 
was  by  the  Ohio,  its  branches,  or  by  land  along  its  banks, 
for  no  longer  was  the  route  from  the  lakes,  which  was  in 
such  constant  use  by  the  Canadians,  often  traveled.  Not 
yet  was  the  Erie  Canal  opened,  which  was  to  bring  a  tide  of 
immigration  from  New  York  and  New  England.  On  the 
Ohio  in  arks,  rafts,  and  other  crafts — the  age  of  the  steam- 
boat was  not  yet  come — or  else  along  the  banks  on  horse- 
back or  by  foot,  came  the  immigrants  who  were  to  make  the 
great  state  of  Illinois.  The  easiest  route  to  Illinois  deter- 
mined the  character  of  its  earliest  population.  The  immigrants 
came  from  Pennsylvania  and  the  south,  and  the  south  in- 
cluded not  only  the  seaboard  states  but  also  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee.  Conditions  in  these  older  states  drove  many  to 
seek  for  newer  lands.  A  drought  in  North  Carolina  in  1816 
and  the  land  boom  in  Kentucky  may  be  cited  as  subsidiary 
causes  of  emigration.  A  more  important  factor  was  the  in- 
creasing production  of  cotton  in  the  South  and  the  resulting 
extension  of  the  plantation  system  with  its  slave  labor.  The 
small  farmer  was  slowly  driven  to  the  uplands  or  forced  to 
emigrate.  The  more  enterprising  took  the  latter  course. 
With  these  small  farmers  there  went  now  and  then  a  large 
landowner  who  wished  to  free  himself  from  the  system  of 
slavery.  Such  was  Edward  Coles. 


20 

These  new  arrivals  made  their  way  to  Shawnee  Town, 
which  was  the  centre  whence  the  roads  to  the  various  parts 
of  the  territory  diverged.  Here  was  a  small  log  cabin  vil- 
lage incapable  of  supplying  the  necessities  of  the  floating 
population.  Situated  on  the  banks  of  an  unfriendly  river 
which  threatened  yearly  to  wash  the  village  out  of  existence, 
Shawnee  Town  continued  to  thrive  on  immigrant  trade  and 
because  it  was  the  chief  export  point  for  the  agricultural 
products  in  the  extreme  south.  At  Shawnee  Town  the  im- 
migrant made  his  purchase  of  land  by  depositing  his  first 
payment  and  then  with  his  family  and  all  his  household 
goods  journeyed  to  the  new  farm. 

Thus,  Illinois  was  first  settled  by  southern  men  and  the 
character  of  the  population  of  the  southern  part  of  the  state 
is  still  that  of  the  south  rather  than  of  the  north.  Streams 
of  immigration  from  other  sources  had  already  begun  when 
the  state  entered  the  Union.  For  instance,  Birkbeck  and 
Flower  had  already  begun  their  English  settlement.  In  1817 
John  M.  Peck  brought  his  family  from  Connecticut;  but  the 
influence  of  these  important  pioneers  of  Illinois  belong  to 
the  period  of  statehood  rather  than  the  earlier  years.  The 
family  histories  of  our  early  governors,  senators,  represent- 
atives, and  other  officials  prove  the  origin  of  our  population. 
These  are  almost  exclusively  of  southern  birth.  Up  to  1842, 
all  the  governors  were  southern  born  or  educated.  The 
northern  influence  belongs  to  the  middle  of  last  century. 
The  true  pioneer  period  is  southern. 

It  is  time  to  close.  The  purpose  of  this  address  has 
been  to  show  how  new  was  the  era  in  our  history  that  began  in 
1818.  The  men  who  attended  the  birth  of  the  new  state  were 
almost  as  new  as  the  state  herself.  They  were  unconnected 
with  and  ignorant  of  the  past  development  of  the  region. 
The  long  drawn  out  eighteenth  century  with  its  romance 
and  its  peculiar  hardships  was  a  thing  of  the  past  The  hand- 
ful of  French  families  scattered  along  the  river  banks  were 
a  negligible  quantity,  scarcely  known  and  not  understood  by 


21 

the  new  comers.  The  past  held  no  traditions  for  the  new 
state.  Her  future  lay  in  the  hands  of  those  who  had  just 
come  and  those  who  were  to  follow.  The  future  was  full  of 
hope,  the  past  was  as  if  it  had  never  occurred. 


